AirAsia X cautiously executes growth plans: CEO Benyamin Ismail

SEPANG: AirAsia X Bhd is executing its growth plans cautiously with calculated moves in terms of new routes introduction and fleet size as the airline sets out on a fresh new start this year. 

AirAsia X chief executive officer Benyamin Ismail said the budget carrier would focus on its traditional routes and regional destinations before embarking on a bigger plan to fly as far as the United States like it did before. 

"We go (to the) closer (destinations) first then we move out further to longer hour flights. We focus on Australia, South Korea and Japan even though we're not pre-Covid-19 capacity. We just want to at least have one foot in so that people have the option to fly.

"In the meantime, we've got to be careful when we move forward. I think (during) pre-Covid-19, we were very market share driven so some destinations we were flying a lot of capacity," he told the New Straits Times in an exclusive interview recently. 

Benyamin said AirAsia X still had room to introduce one or two new destinations but the airline was not in a rush to do so although it would be flying to Istanbul, Türkiye in the near future. 

He added that currently, only full-service carrier Turkish Airlines was serving the direct Kuala Lumpur-Istanbul route and it traditionally has demand for passengers that prefer full service. 

AirAsia X's entry into the market, he said, would offer middle-income travellers an option to travel to Türkiye.

"Our cost base is very low. We know what our pricing point is…There's demand for passengers that prefer full service and there's also demand for people from the middle income who wants to fly with us."

"The only thing that we have to ensure is that whatever fare we charge is profitable because at the end of the day this is not a short flight. It's a long flight. We have to be sure and be careful that this is the right thing to do," Benyamin said. 

He added that AirAsia X was looking to fly from Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2 to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, which is operated by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd. 

Meanwhile, China's recent re-opening presents huge opportunity for AirAsia X to fly more passengers due to the size of the market and the country's population. 

Benyamin said AirAsia X had started flying to Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

The airline is planning to fly to Chengdu in the next few months. 

He remains confident that AirAsia X will recapture the load that it used to have before from China.

THis is given that Shanghai and Hangzhou routes are currently doing well for the airline. 

AirAsia X currently has 14 Airbus A330 aircraft whereby nine is operational while the rest are going through maintenance and waiting for the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia approval to fly.